xX INTRODUCTION. 
rowness of the stripe of country which intervenes between the summit 
of the ridge and the coast would have caused it to be little better than 
a mountain torrent. As it is, its arms spread far and wide, and it 
carries a great body of water to the sea. The head waters of the 
Missouri interlock with those of the southern branches of the 
Columbia ; but that river, precipitating itself down the eastern decli- 
vity of the mountains, takes a devious course to the ‘south-east, 
receiving in its way several great tributaries, and joing the Missis- 
stppi, which rises at the west end of Lake Superior, in a comparatively 
low, but hilly country. Their united streams traverse the whole of 
Louisiana, and fall into the Gulf of Mexico, after a course of four 
thousand and five hundred miles, reckoned from the head of the 
Missouri. The Saskatchewan is the third great river which issues 
from the same elevated part of the mountains, its feeding streams 
spreading from the 47th to the 54th parallel of latitude, and the more 
southern ones being interposed betwixt the head waters of the two 
preceding rivers. The upper streams of the Saskatchewan, after 
descending from the mountains, form two principal arms, which flow 
through comparatively naked, sandy plains, under the names of the 
North and South Branches, and then unite a short way below Carlton- 
house. From thence the river, continuing its course through a well- 
wooded country, passes by Cumberland-house, where it receives a 
considerable tributary that originates on the immediate banks of the 
Missinippi, a parallel river, and afterwards, flowing through Lake 
Winipeg, changes its name to Nelson River, and falls into Hudson's 
Bay, near Cape Tatnam. ‘The whole course of the Saskatchewan or 
Nelson River, from the mountains to the sea, may be estimated, 
windings inclusive, at one thousand six hundred miles. Lake 
‘Winipeg, besides other large streams, receives the River Winipeg, 
which rises on a ridge of land bordering closely on Lake Superior, and 
also the Red River, whose eastern branch has its sources on the same 
heights with the Mississippi, and whose western branch originates close 
to the banks of the Missouri, some distance above where that river 
begins to turn to the southward. By means of short portages, then, 
one may pass from the respective branches of the Nelson, by the 
